NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1929, 11 December 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Tub Strike Bosses would seem to be already reaping some of the harvest of mischief they have sown. They succeeded well enough for a time with their strife-making, and they fooled their following handsomely with rash promises and wilder prophecies concerning the powers they wielded. And now their dupes arc waking up. It has been evident for some time past that the men who were dragged into the trouble by the Federation of Labour had been sacrificed without any hope of doing any good to the waterside workers. The carters, and the seamen and firemen who were induced to "come out," and the builders' labourers, the bricklayers, and the others. All these have.realised, or are beginning to do so, the foolishness of the action of their leaders. Take for instance the seamen and firemen of the steamer Maungamii, now stranded here. What possible good has their calling-out done? Not one atom of good. On the other hand, they laid themselves open to penalties; they have lost their pay and their jobs;* and they have met with ingratitude and neglect and been treated in the shabbiest fashion by the local strikers whose cause they had espoused. Is it surprising in the circumstances that they should be seething with discontent and wholly disgusted 1 So also with many scores of others. Each clay brings fresh evdonce of discontent amongst the strikers, and violent altercations occur at their meetings. The men arc' realising how they have been fooled; they and their families arc feeling the pinch. The strike pay about which the leaders talked so confidently has failed to materialise; Christmas is near at hand, and the wives and children are faced_ with the prospects of a cheerless time—the men want to get back to work. Their merciless leaders would however still prolong the struggle and pile up more misery for the women and children and more worry and idleness for the men. It is some consolation to know that those same leaders arc beginning to meet with some of the worry and anxiety they have so liberally and so callously brought on others. A large section, of the men arc in open revolt. They at. last realise that they haw nothing to gain and everything to lose by continuing idle. The end now is. very near.

The inventive genius of our morning contemporary is having «i very busy time just now drawing on his imagination for grounds on which to attack its political opponents. In yesterday's issue that veracious organ of the Brewing Industry gave up quite a lot of its space to venomous comments on its own distorted version of current happenings, and no doubt found therein some relief for its own troubles and misgivings concerning the future. It is, a little foolish of that decadent mouthpiece of a decaying cause to so plainly disclose its sympathies with the Fed Federation if it really wishes to hel» Sir Joseph Ward. The great bulk of the people have seen exactly what the lied Federation stands for, and when tho official mouthpiece of Wardisffi, which has on every possible occasion insidiously encouraged the strikers in the present industrial j crisis, openly urges that the Liberals of Lyttelton should throw in their j lot with the Socialist-Anarchist or[ganisation in order to gratify the spleen of their leaders and defeat the Ministerialist candidate, it is not calculated to do either the Liberal Party or the Xcie Zealand Times much good with the business people of the coniimmif.y. Of course, it is ' generally recognised here that our I morning, contemporary has few scruples where it desires to give rein j to its malignant hatred of the Government, bill, it will find it ,i Jj (,(),. difficult to convince the public of Wellington, at least, that a journal which advocates the encouragement and support of the Fed Federation and its leaders and ruinous methods in preference to a Government which, whatever its faults, has honestly and firmly carried out its duty to the nublic, is deserving of either credence or respect. Perhaps Sir JobePh Ward and his friends will now see that it is more necessary than rvor that they should disrtwn th* Red Federation to which their official' mouthpiece has already committed itself. I

Wellington . people, generally speaking, know very little of the country around the middle section of the Main Trunk Railway, and no probably will not be very much interested in a return moved for by the Hon. J. Dutoik in the Legislative Council a few days ago. Mn. Duthie apparently was anxious to stimulate that interest on the part of Wellington citizens in the opening np of the district which is of great importance to them, but more particularly was he desirous of inducing the Government to see the advisablcness of affording a better manner of communication between the Main Trunk Line and Toknanu by way of Waimarino. The matter is one of some importance and especially to those Wellington people or those holiday seekers passing through Wellington who wish to take advantage of the best route to the fishing and scenic resorts in the vicinity of the hot and cold lakes in the Tanpo district. At the present time the journey inland by coach from Waiouru is a long and wearisome ride of some 60 miles, a large part of the route being through uninteresting pumice country and over a- bad road. As a rule this ride is full of discomforts and with few compensations en route. Mb. Duthie suggests that by way of Waimarino there is a far better route to Tokaanu. The road, which is already formed for the greater part of the distance, passes through a better class of country, is move level and some 20 miles shorter than the Waiouru route. From the information supplied by the Government in response to the motion of the honourable' member, it would seem that onlv five miles of tins road remain to be completed, although a section of some seven miles also would require attention, having fallen into some disrepair. It is too late in the session probably to expect the Government to place a vote on the Supplementary Estimates towards the cost of completing this work, but in view of the useful purpose which the road would serve when finished Ministers should dive it their consideration when allocating tho funds at their disposal.